Apparatus for forming a sliver of textile fibres



Dec. 2, 1969 T, H. WR|GHT ET AL 3,481,004

APPARATUS FOR FORMING A sLIvER oF TEXTILE FIBREs Filed Oct. l1, 1967 4 ySheets-Sheva 1 Dec. 2, 1969 T. H. WRIGHT ET AL 3,481,004

APPARATUS FOR FORMING A SLIVER OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed oct. 11, 1967 2 sheets-sheet 2 United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 19-150 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for forming a sliver from a web of fibers delivered by a doffer of a textile carding machine in which the web is delivered to feed rollers. A transverse fiberreceiving travelling surface is at the delivery side of the feed rollers and lies in a commoni-tangent plane and contacting the feed rollers thereby defining together an enclosed space into which the web is delivered from the nip of the rollers.

The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for forming a sliver from a web of textile fibres or from a plurality of slivers. In the carding of textile libres, such as cotton or wool intended for the production of worsted yarns, a thin web of fibres is produced at the card doffer. In conventional carding, the thin web of fibres is removed from the doffer by a dofiing comb and passed through a trumpet to the nip of a pair of calendar rollers, the trumpet and calender rollers serving to form the web into a consolidated sliver. In some high speed carding machines the doffing comb has been replaced by a roller dofling arrangement but at the same stage the full width web produced by the doffing arrangement needs to be converted to sliver form and this is usually done in the manner previously described.

It is necessary in forming sliver as above described to provide a long length of web between the' dofiing arrangement and the sliver forming means. This gives rise to difficulties in proce'ssing at high speeds. There is also the further disadvantage that when the machine is started up after breakage of the web a manual operation is necessary to thread the web through the sliver forming means.

It is one of the objects of the present invention according to a first aspect thereof to provide a method of and apparatus for forming slivers from webs on carding machines in which either or both of the above disadvantages can be overcome.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a sliver from a web of fibres delivered by a textile carding machine, comprising the steps of feeding said web in a predetermined plane to a draw-off zone and drawing off the web from said zone in said plane or substantially in said plane in a direction inclined or normal to the feed direction to form a sliver the axis of which lies in said plane or substantially in said plane.

Further, according to the first aspect of the' invention, there is provided apparatus for forming a sliver from a web of fibres delivered by a textile carding machine, cornprising web feeding means for feeding said web in a predetermined plane to a draw-ofi` zone, and web drawing-ofi means for drawing off the web from said zone in said plane or substantially in said plane in a direction inclined or normal to the feed direction to form a sliver the axis of which lies in said plane or substantially in said plane.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a single sliver 3,481,004 Patented Dec. 2, 1969 ICC from a plurality of slivers comprising; feeding said plurality of slivers longitudinally in side-by-side relation in a predetermined plane to a draw-off zone and drawing off the slivers along a path in said plane or substantially in said plane in a direction inclined or normal to the direction in which they are fed to said zone to form a single sliver, the axis of which lies in said plane or substantially in said plane.

Further according to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for forming a sliver from a plurality of slivers, comprising sliver feeding means for feeding said plurality of slivers longitudinally in sideby-side relation in a predetermined plane to a draw-off zone and sliver drawing-off means for drawing off the slivers along a path in said plane or substantially in said plane in a direction inclined or normal to the direction in which the slivers are fed to said zone to form a single sliver the axis of which lies in said plane' or substantially in said plane.

f Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is a diagrammatic end view of part of a textile card according to a first embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic end view of part of a textile card according to a second embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of part of a textile card according to a third embodiment of the invention, and

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic end view of the part of the card shown in FIG. 3.

In a first embodiment of the invention, illustrated in FIG. l of the drawings, a cotton card includes a conventional card cylinder 11 arranged, as viewed in the drawing, to revolve in a clockwise direction, a doffer cylinder 12 of small diameter, say 6 inches, arranged to revolve in a counterclockwise direction to remove fibres 13 from the cylinder 11 and carry them round in the form of a web to a web-detaching fluted roller 14 which is arranged to revolve in a counterclockwise direction and pass the web to the nip of a pair of plain rollers 15 and 16, which may be a crushing roller and from which the web is delivered on to the upper surface of a travelling apron 17 which is so arranged and driven that the upper run moves in a horizontal plane in a direction parallel to the axis of the rollers 15 and 16. It will be seen that the fibres on passing round on the doffer cylinder 12 pass a dofiing blade 18` and on being picked up by the fluted roller 14 then pass beneath the blade for conveyance in the form of a web to therollers 15 and 16.

In operation, the carding machine is started up and the carded web 13 is transferred from the card main cylinder 11 to the surface of the doffer cylinder 12 in the conventional manner and is removed from the doter cylinder 12 by the tinted detaching roller 14 and directed on to the upper surface of the crushing roller 15, where it is conveyed through the nip between the two rollers 15 and 16, from which it passes vertically downwards on to the upper run of a travelling apron 17 which confines and consolidates the fibres in the Zone bounded by the rollers and the apron and withdraws them in a horizontal direction in the plane in which the web is fed to the apron 17, thereby forming on the apron a consolidated sliver 23 which is continuously delivered from the end of the apron.

It will be appreciated that the sliver-forming arrangement hereinbefore described with reference to FIG. 1 is self-piecing because the web 13 in passing from the fiuted detaching roller 14 is not in free fiight but is supported by the surface of the roller 15 until the web leaves the nip between the two rollers 15 and 16.

In a second embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings, the carded web 13, as in the lirst embodiment, is removed from the card main cylinder 11 by the doier cylinder 12 on which it is carried to the web detaching roller 14 which picks up the web and passes it downwardly to the nip between a plain roller 19 and the detaching roller 14, from which the web passes vertically downwardly on to the upper run of the apron 17 where it is formed into a sliver in the same manner as the web in the rst embodiment of the invention hereinbefore described.

A third embodiment of the invention, which may be employed without the use of a doing blade, is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. A conventional card cylinder 11 is arranged, as viewed from one side of the machine, to revolve in a counter-clockwise direction and a dolfer cylinder 12 to revolve in a clockwise direction to remove fibres 13 from the cylinder 11 and carry them round for delivery by a web detaching roller 14 to a pair of plain rollers 20 and 21 which may be crushing rollers and which are mounted one above the other with the top roller 20 forward of the bottom roller 21. The tiuted web-detaching roller 14 is mounted above the roller 21 and adjacent the doter cylinder 12 but out of contact with the two rollers 20 and 21 and serves to remove the fibrous web 13 from the dolfer cylinder 12 and pass it over the top surface of the roller 21 from which the web passes to the nip Ibetween the two rollers 20 and 21.

A further roller 22 of the same dimensions as the rollers 20 and 21 and hereinafter referred to as a redirecting roller 22 lies parallel to and in contact with the roller 21 and in the same horizontal plane and serves to redirect the librous web 13 leaving the nip between the two crushing rollers 20 and 21 downwardly through the nip between it and the roller 21 and on to the upper surface of the continuously moving endless apron 17, the upper run of which is arranged in contact with or in close proximity to the rollers 21 and 22 and moves in a direction parallel to the axes of the rollers 21 and 22. The travelling apron 17 confines and consolidates the tibres forming the web and withdraws them in a horizontal -direction in the plane in which the web is fed to the apron 17, thereby forming on the apron 17 a sliver 23 which is continuously delivered from the end of the apron 17, as illustrated in FIG. 3.

It will be appreciated that the sliver forming arrangements hereinbefore described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIGS. 3 and 4 are also self-piecing.

Whilst the particular embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 relate to a roller dofiing system as applied to a card they could be applied to cards having doing arrangements includingvibratory combs as well as cards employing other web doing arrangements. Because the arrangements are self-piecing the usual requirements of running a card at slow speed to effect manual piecing is no longer necessary.

It should be mentioned that any of the arrangements hereinbefore described may be embodied in a double dotiing system simply by placing on-e doffing unit above the other.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for forming a sliver from a web of fibers delivered by a doiier of a textile carding machine comprising a iiuted detaching roller adapted to remove the carded web from said doffer, at least one roller coacting with said fluted detaching roller to form a nip therebetween through which said web passes, a liber-receiving travelling surface provided on the web delivery side of the rollers and adjacent thereto, said surface lying in a common-tangent plane to two of said rollers and contacting said two of said rollers thereby defining together an enclosed space into which the web is delivered from the nip of said rollers, and means for moving said liberreceiving travelling surface in a direction parallel to said nip thereby to draw off fibers from said space on said travelling surface to form a sliver thereon.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising another roller located at least partly above said uted detaching roller and its co-acting roller and providing a nip between said lirst mention-ed roller and said co-acting roller through which said carded web from said detaching roller passes.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,345,700 10/1967 Kalwaites 19-150 2,825,937 3/1958 Guimbretiere et al. 19-150 XR 3,400,430 9/ 1968 Kalwaites 19-106 FOREIGN PATENTS 916,917 l/1963 Great Britain.

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 19-106 

